Dr. Xabier Ezeizabarrena
Professor of Envirobmental law, UPV/EHU and Deusto University
Email: xabier@ezeizabarrena.eu
On October 22, 2015, under the direction of the Globernance Institute for Democratic Governance with the San Telmo Museum and the European Capital of Culture 2016 San Sebastian, the interesting series entitled European Dialogues provided us an encounter with Cristina Narbona on a pressing issue in general, and particularly considering with the Climate Change Summit being held these days in Paris. The presentation and moderation was provided by Xabier Caño, a colleague and friend in the legal world, and an expert in environmental dilemmas facing the planet.
The intervention of Cristina Narbona along with the debate left us reflecting upon profoundly interesting issues from a technical, environmental, social and political perspective.
Beginning with the environmental risks, Narbona addressed three categories of highly complex and relevant environmental risks:
- The risks of contamination in different areas, including public health.
- The risks arising from the depletion of natural resources. On this point the energy issue is central.
- The risks arising from the interactions of nature, also called “planetary limits”, among which climate change is particularly notable.
Such information provided, and through the participatory debate on the economic and humanitarian crisis, sustainability, the energy model or the essential protection of natural resources, reveal significant limitations arising from our model of development.
The aforementioned reveals the relative unimportance of political borders surrounding environmental interactions, because it goes beyond our territorial limits and reminds us of the inefficiency of our various formulas to prevent damage to the atmosphere, soil, water or oceans. The question becomes more difficult in such media, where our margin of action fighting the elements makes it clear the unequal fight that man has stubbornly taken against nature for centuries.
The problem is not new despite having overtones of solutions to a problem that the global crisis does not help to solve. On the contrary, we continue to suffer the consequences of environmental risks, the international system not able to produce coercive reactions before situations with such characteristics.
In the energy sector, for example, energy and economic needs of each State are often used to justify the breach of international commitments. Accordingly, there remains a great political battle to settle the levels of compliance with international law, on which there are those who are intent on being exonerated thanks to the generous limits of its sovereignty, to flee from principles involving any interference in their energy policies.
At the same time, developing countries spent years enduring the impact of environmental risks on their biodiversity and primary economic sectors, especially agriculture and fishing. Their future has for centuries been linked to the impact of a model that tends to jeopardize the future of many societies. Against this, energy policies and short-term economic persist, mere consumer impulses are the usual conditions of the international response to the crisis.
In my opinion, both the United Nations and the European Union should reconsider their diffuse positions on environmental and energy issues. It is necessary that the two institutions coincide so as to become active political instruments. That should be their contribution so that Law and Justice over the commons are globalized alongside fundamental rights. It is true however that to protect the environment and natural resources, Law is not enough. A commitment is necessary from a local to a global level to tackle the problems at their roots and gage the results before making global decisions.
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